Monday, June 22, 2015

I can’t decide if I was in no position or the perfect
position to experience American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore the first
time I saw it. Let me explain.

The setting was Days of the Dead: Atlanta. I was drunk to say the least. That evening, I procured six edibles. Yes, that kind of edibles. Three pot brownies and three pot
caramels. My intent was to space them
out and eat them over the course of the weekend. I ate one immediately, then proceeded to
continue drinking. About 15 minutes
before the screening, I decided to eat another as I found a seat. As I sat down, I noticed a popular
independent horror director sitting in front of me and handed him the other
half of my brownie. I’m not naming
names. I don’t wanna get anyone in
trouble. We’ll just say that his name
rhymes with Madam Ballrant. Anyway, I
reached into my pocket to get another, and all I felt was empty wrappers. It was then that the realization set in. Throughout the course of a couple of hours of
not paying attention and the drunken horror con social butterflying that my
position as the horror scribe of Atlanta affords me, I had eaten all of them. Jason Hoover later referred to it as “hero
dosing.” In other words, I was about to
be FUCKED UP.

As the movie began to run and it all kicked in at once, the
thought “I really hope this is a long flick, ‘cause I’m not gonna be able to
stand up for a while” crossed my mind.
Then, as I saw two women being abducted, I found myself incapable of
doing anything but staring, slack jawed, at the screen. For the next seventy-something minutes, I
couldn’t look away. I don’t think I even
blinked. It was like some Cenobite in
the employ of Unearthed Films had affixed hooked chains to my eyelids,
Clockwork Orange style, and was refusing to allow me even a momentary respite
from the most intense gore I had ever seen being mainlined into my brain.

I am happy to report that after a second viewing in a less
drunk and far less stoned mindset, the movie retains its power.

For those unfamiliar with the Guinea Pig films, it was a
series of seven (well, six and a “worst of”) Japanese ultra-gore films produced
in the 80’s. They became infamous after
being found in a serial killer’s collection.
The apocryphal story of Charlie Sheen seeing Flower of Flesh and Blood
(the second in the series and BOG&G’s spiritual father) and reporting to
the FBI that he’d just seen a real snuff film is one of extreme cinema’s most
beloved tales. Now Stephen Biro, owner
of Unearthed Films and the American
distributor of the Guinea Pig flicks, has undertaken the creation of another
cycle, this one made in the good ol’ US of A.

Simply put, this is probably the most effective gore flick
ever released. What Marcus Koch has
achieved here is a legitimate game changer.
This is a bold statement considering all of the flicks I’ve seen, but I
have never seen gore effects this good before.
The way the skin moves when it’s cut.
The way the instruments catch on the bones. The meticulous cross sections of severed limb
stumps. This is truly the masterwork of a
man at the top of his game. This is
Marcus’ Day of the Dead, if you know what I mean.

One complaint that you’re likely to hear about this film is
that it has no story. Well, yes and
no. There is no story in a traditional
sense. It’s the same as Flower of Flesh
and blood in that the mutilation is the sum of the experience. There is a higher concept and some intriguing
symbolism (I’m still not sure what to make of some of it) if you’re inclined to
look deep between the lines for it, but it’s definitely not out in the
open. The film is primarily concerned
with being a real time chronicle of two women being dissected. That’s it. It’s an exercise in grueling atmosphere and
visuals. It’s an endurance test. Speaking of which, people will say it moves
slowly. Those people missed the damn
point. There’s something either deliciously
transgressive or sadistically nerve-wracking (depending on your perspective) about watching the clothes being
slowly cut off of the ladies for a few minutes before the blood starts to flow. It’s
torturous foreplay. It’s those agonizing
minutes after being sent to your room but before a parent arrives for that
whoopin’. It’s those terrifying three
seconds between stubbing your toe and the pain impulse reaching your brain. The fact that it lingers on every minute
detail forces you to feel rather than watch.

An aspect of filmmaking that is often unjustly overlooked is
sound design. To be honest, there’s not
a hell of a lot of indie flicks whose sound you can say much nice about. The sound design in this one, however, is
superb. As good as both the gore itself
and the grim ambiance are, those aspects on their own wouldn’t shine nearly as
much had the audio been entrusted to lesser hands. Jimmy Screamerclaus takes an already potent
brew and sends it over the top.

Caution: The next paragraph contains a slight spoiler.

One particular aspect of the film’s setup struck me as an
absolute stroke of perverse genius.
Before their ordeal, the women are shot up with a nerve agent and given
several drops from a medicine dropper.
When it is revealed that these drops were LSD, you immediately knew
where the psychonauts in the crowd were by either a gasp or an “OH HELL NO!” In addition to just being a unique and sick
little addition to the proceedings, the real genius of that bit of business is
that it adds a whole new level of identification for anyone in the audience who
has done acid. The camera may, literally
and figuratively, be making the viewer share the gaze of the killers, but
anyone who has ever dosed can’t help but imagine what it would be like to be
tripping on the table. You become trapped
in the headspace of the victims, and it’s a truly harrowing idea.

Something happens at the end of this flick that
caused a tremor in even some of the most hardcore members of the audience that
night. Hell, Madam Ballrant got up and
walked the fuck out. As the audio
residue of that final image continued over the credits, we were left with the
question, “Um, is it ok to applaud? Can
we do that while this is going on?” It
was a sublimely awkward moment. As I
filed out of the room with about two thirds of the people who were there at its
start, I was pretty much silent until after a few shots and a couple of
smokes. AGP:BOG&G is the kind of
flick you have to recover from. Whether
you’re looking for a breath of fresh air in the tired “faux-snuff” sub-genre,
want to test your mettle (or that of your unsuspecting friends) with some
depravity, or just want to marvel at an impressive practical effects
achievement in the age of CGI, American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore is
for you. Those weak of stomach or constitution
need not apply. Nathan says check it
out.